In the process, the House That Jeff Bezos Built has leapfrogged multitudes of mighty electronics merchants like Apple, Target and Sears, and arguably helped vanquish others, like Circuit City and Sony Stores.

This time around, Amazon has edged out the world’s largest retailer — Walmart — for the No. 2 spot on the TWICE hit parade, relegating the discount chain to third place.

Indeed, Amazon’s gains came at the expense of a retail channel that could use a little loving. Total sales for the country’s 100 largest electronics retailers — representing about three-quarters of all U.S. consumer tech sales — rose 4.3 percent last year, to $130 billion, giving Amazon a 17 percent piece of the Top 100 pie.